Album: Angus Stone Broken Brights (Desert Harvest)

Flying solo again following several recordings with his sister Julia, Angus Stone delivers what may be his masterpiece in Broken Brights, an album that seamlessly inhabits the resurgent Laurel Canyon sound.

Delivering shared intimacies in a whiskery drawl over mandolin, fiddle and susurrus of cymbal in tracks like "River Love" and the gorgeous "Broken Brights" itself, Stone builds hypnotic momentum as each song progresses, puncturing the atmosphere with an occasional waspish guitar solo in Neil Young style. But however sad the stories, the arrangements glow with light: hushed harmonies and flute accompany the cowboy twang of "The Blue Door", and carefree whistling attends the rhythmic strum of "Wooden Chair". 

Download: Broken Brights; The Blue Door; River Love